


Time and Memory

by jusrecht



Category: Code Geass
Genre: Alternate Reality, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-05
Updated: 2010-08-05
Packaged: 2018-02-11 11:00:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2065638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jusrecht/pseuds/jusrecht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Lelouch hadn't messed up with Euphie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time and Memory

  
The princess sipped her tea, white taper fingers curled daintily around the ear of her cup. Zero watched without touching his own drink. He never liked the taste of Earl Grey. He _had_ once, during happier times, but those days were too long gone. Now, there was enough of bitterness in every breath he took into his lungs to want it on his tongue as well.  
  
“You must be aware of the reason I’m here today,” she began, her lips curved into a cheerfully polite smile. She had changed a great deal, or so he thought. Ten years lay too far in the past; it might only be the combined work of time and memory, nothing more.  
  
“I thought you gave them your promise,” was his only reply. Noncommittal. He did know why she was here, without the long, bright fall of her hair around her face; in its place was a wig, ordinary brown styled in a modest bob—and suddenly she was no longer Euphemia li Britannia.  
  
Her smile turned sheepish, a little girl’s smile. “I was young once,” she said quietly, as if admitting a trifle of silly mistake. “I don’t do this for myself, you know that.”  
  
“Lies.” He was smirking now, wide and sarcastic. “Your mouth says ‘world peace’, but in the end, it’s about your own peace of mind. You just cannot bear suffering, even only to see it in other people.”  
  
“No one should.” She held his gaze firmly, challenging.   
  
He returned the courtesy. “That world in your dreams exists only in your dreams. You should have known better by now.”  
  
“I want it to become reality.” Her voice was steady, and that sort of conviction, he knew, did not come from half-whispered dreams; Euphemia truly believed she could make it happen. “Will you help me?”   
  
Zero curled his lips. “Let me make this clear. You wish to overthrow the Emperor of Britannia, your own father, and become the Empress, all for world peace. You. The princess who has abdicated her right to inherit the throne since ten years ago.”   
  
“Yes.”  
  
“And what do I get out of it?”  
  
She smiled and that smile was _nothing_ like Euphie at all that it threw him off-balance for a moment. “A friend in the Empress of Britannia,” she answered, calm and gentle and inexplicably sincere, “and your revenge.”  
  
Lelouch laughed, a sharp bark of a sound that rang even crueller inside his head. The thought of his father, his elder brothers, crawling on all fours and kissing his boots had him closing his eyes and breathing deeply with dark anticipation. None of these minor, fruitless attempts of rebellions anymore, but a swift strike to the heart of Britannia itself. A deadly blow.  
  
She was watching him, her expression giving away nothing. Lelouch allowed himself a moment to marvel at her: the old Euphie would never—that mask, that scheme, that _deadliness_.   
  
“In exchange of my wearing the villain’s cape in this scenario?” he finally said. “I wonder if it’s a fair offer, milady.”  
  
“You never like playing the hero, Lelouch.” Her voice was softer now, reminiscent of times when flowers had been all in bloom and they lay sleeping under the shadows of white pillars of the villa, her hand in his, knowing nothing of this ugly desire to hurt or kill or depose their own father. “Even since we were little, you have despised that role and wanted only to be the villain. The princess and the warlock, never the prince.”  
  
He smirked at her. “Because you have no use for a prince either, not then and certainly not now.”  
  
Euphie flashed him another demure, little smile—except this time, he wondered how many part of it was genuine, if any. “Does it mean you agree to an arrangement?” she asked.  
  
He reached for his full cup and raised it in a toast. “To our arrangement, Your Majesty.”  
  
Her eyes gleamed like a little girl who had just been given a beautiful doll on her birthday as she accepted his gesture. The tea still tasted bitter on his tongue, but Lelouch decided that he could like it for once.

  
_**End  
** _


End file.
